Small salary for Dem, much outrage from GOP

Gipson's consulting work hands opponents a brickbat

Democratic state Senate candidate Terry Gipson earned a small amount of income last year working for the same consulting firm used by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, according to a recently filed financial disclosure form.

That's a fact that, fairly or unfairly, fits directly into state Senate Republicans' messaging for 2016.

While the amount is small — between $1 and $1,000, according to the filing — Gipson's work for Washington, D.C.-based Hilltop Public Solutions is further grist for the Senate GOP to tie Gipson to de Blasio, and the multiple federal investigations into the mayor's team. That includes one where Gipson's own 2014 campaign is part of the scrutiny.

Gipson — a former one-term senator who lost his bid for reelection in 2014 — said on his financial disclosure form for 2015 that he earned the money as a "freelance consultant" doing "public relations" for Hilltop. His campaign told the Times Union that the specific amount of pay was $650, and that it was for out-of-state consulting work, not work in New York.

Gipson also earned between $5,000 and $20,000 as a freelance designer last year, while his wife earned a larger income.

The Democrat is running this year against his 2014 opponent, Republican state Sen. Sue Serino, in a possible battleground race that includes most of Dutchess and Putnam counties.

Since de Blasio's election in 2013 running as a progressive champion, Senate Republicans have made him a major part of both their campaign mailers and their overall rhetoric. The strategy is meant to portray the Democratic conference as captive to downstate, New York City interests, especially since de Blasio unsuccessfully launched a major 2014 effort to flip the Senate to Democrats.

In an email to the Times Union, Senate Republican spokesman Scott Reif slammed Gipson over the consulting payment and other controversies involving de Blasio.

"Failed Senate candidate Terry Gipson ... is still working hand-in-hand with the mayor in a brazen attempt to take control of our entire state government," Reif wrote. He said Hilltop partner Bill Hyers "is wiring Terry Gipson cash and paying him a consultant's fee for doing God knows what, all because he knows he'll put the interests of his New York City cronies ahead of the needs of hardworking Hudson Valley families."

Gipson was one of several Democratic state Senate candidates that benefited in 2014 from a tactic in which huge donations were raised by de Blasio's team and sent through upstate county committees, and then passed in six-figure sums to candidates, which may have circumvented campaign contribution limits. In Gipson's case, the Putnam County Democrats transferred $184,000 to his campaign account a couple weeks before the general election.

Those tactics are now being investigated by Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara and Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance. De Blasio's attorney says they are entirely normal and legal.

"The properly reported $650 consulting fee (Gipson) received from the D.C.-based company Hilltop for out-of-state consulting is work that resulted directly from a response to his resume, which he had sent to a number of public relations firms in early 2015," said Josh Mumm, Gipson's campaign manager. "Since the end of his term in 2014, Terry has pursued public relations consulting work with a wide variety of companies to gain experience in a field that he enjoys.

" ... It's unfortunate that some Senate Republicans are more interested in crafting absurd accusations than promoting real solutions for working families in the Hudson Valley," Mumm said.

Mumm did not immediately have a comment on the identity of Gipson's client.

Hilltop was a key cog in de Blasio's 2014 election efforts, according to a leaked state Board of Elections report, which referred to the firm as "very involved" in the mayor's coordinated campaign among committees and consulting firms.

The Daily News reported that Hilltop principal Sam Nagourney, who was de Blasio's 2013 finance director for his mayoral campaign, raised money from interests with business before de Blasio in his 2014 efforts.

Hilltop's Hyers was the founder of the Campaign For One New York, the nonprofit that helped advance de Blasio's agenda, paid Hilltop handsomely, and is also under investigation by Bharara for potential pay-to-play fundraising. No one has been charged with wrongdoing in either probe. The nonprofit has now shut down.

Hyers is also one of five people that de Blasio has designated an "agent of the city" whose emails with the administration he believes are exempt from public disclosure, despite the fact that they are not government employees. Hyers did not immediately have a comment responding to Reif on Tuesday.

From 2006 to 2013, Gipson had a business, Gipson Design Group Inc. but shut it down when he won the initial Senate bid.

Bronx Assemblyman Michael Blake landed an outside job earlier late last year with Hilltop, but then declined to take it after questions were raised about a lawmaker working for a political consulting firm.